Take A Flight To Another Time

CHESAPEAKE — The B-17 Flying Fortress that rumbled over Hampton Roads on Monday was identical in nearly every detail to the workhorse bombers that helped America win World War II.

One difference was the names.

Scrawled in black ink on the walls, the names - Glenn Harrison, 96th Bomb Group ... Richard L. Mueller ... 8th Air Force ... Lt. Col. Joseph Evans, New Kensington, Pa. - represent veterans and their loved ones who have taken a 30-minute trip back in time aboard the Liberty Belle, a restored B-17 now at the Chesapeake Regional Airport.

The Liberty Belle will offer flights to the public this coming weekend, and for many it will represent much more than a curiosity. They want to see what granddad flew in the war or what their father haltingly discussed after years of silence. Maybe they want to imagine the last time their husband was seen alive: Robert J. Dwyer, 50 missions, 1944. Sgt. Donald Broers, lost 1944 near Budapest, Hungary.

Reporters and photographers were offered a flight Monday to give the public a sense of what to expect. If the weather holds, expect to deal with some heat. The interior is neither pressurized nor air-conditioned. Once in the air, the rushing wind provides a degree of comfort and the views are unforgettable.

Passengers can climb into the glassed-in nose of the ship and stare into wide-open space. This is where the bombardier scanned the ground before releasing a payload of 500-pound bombs. There is something vaguely unsettling about sighting houses in Hampton Roads through a working bomb sight - unless you come across that obnoxious neighbor with the yappy dog.

Climbing back and forth along the narrow fuselage allows other views. Two side windows feature protruding machine guns. And there is literally a breathtaking view from the top. Passengers can stick their heads out of the roof and catch a view of the sky with the plane's tail in full view.

As more names are added to the Liberty Belle this weekend, one is likely to be Lt. Roy M. Sheely Jr.

He was at the controls of a B-17 when it was shot down over Holland on the afternoon of Oct. 28, 1944. He was taken prisoner by an SS Panzer Battalion and spent the rest of the war in various POW camps before being liberated.

In 1989, Sheely received a letter from a young man in Holland who belonged to a group that dedicated itself to finding crashed aircraft. It turned out that pieces of the B-17 aircraft had been found, and after much correspondence, Sheely and his crew were given a piece of the aircraft's fuselage.

That treasured relic is now in the hands of David Funk, a retired Air Force veteran who lives in Yorktown and is the nephew of Sheely, who has since passed away. Funk has already applied for a flight aboard the Liberty Belle, and he plans to take along the shadow box that contains the fuselage as well as his uncle's flight wings. It will be a final tribute to his uncle.

"It is going to make my heart go to my throat," he said.

Stories like this are familiar to Scott Maher, director of operations for the Liberty Foundation, the nonprofit group that raises money to keep the plane airworthy.

He is already in contact with a local man whose father was a B-17 pilot and who wants to spread his ashes over the water.

He recalls another story of a man who simply got down on the tarmac as the plane sat idling and looked up at the ball turret gun - which appears as a clear bubble on the underside of the plane. He had bailed out of a B-17 during the war and the ball turret gun was the last thing he had seen. He just wanted to check out the view again.

Raising money to keep the Liberty Belle airworthy isn't easy. Maher is touring the country to offer the flights, which cost $430 per person. But the aircraft costs $5,000 an hour to fly and more than $1 million a year to keep on tour.

The aircraft itself never saw combat. Built in 1945 near the end of the war, it ended up at a museum in Connecticut, was heavily damaged by a tornado and was restored to fly in 2004.

But for those who fly it this weekend, the emotions will be all too real.

TAKE A RIDE

Fly aboard Liberty Belle 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 8-9.

To reserve a flight, call 918-340-0243 or e-mail smaher@libertyfoundation.org.